During routine operation of a first device on a network, the first device may be remotely attacked by a second device on the network. Methods of attack include the second device probing for the IP address and associated services of the first device to expose vulnerabilities. Other methods of attack include brute force attacks and denial of service attacks. A brute force attack is a trial-and-error method used to obtain information such as a user password or personal identification number (PIN). In a brute force attack, automated software is used to generate a large number of consecutive guesses as to the value of the desired data. Brute force attacks may be used by criminals to crack encrypted data, or by security analysts to test an organization's network security.
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is an attempt to render a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, these types of attacks generally comprise efforts to temporarily or indefinitely interrupt or suspend services of a host connected to a computer network such as the Internet. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root name servers. One common method of attack involves saturating the target device with external communication requests until the target device cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or until the target device responds so slowly as to be rendered essentially unavailable. Such attacks may lead to a server overload. DoS attacks may also be implemented by forcing the target device to reset, by consuming one or more resources of the target device so that the device can no longer provide its intended service, or obstructing a communications path between the intended users and the target device so that communication is no longer possible.